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User blog:Reaper with no name/Comparative Analyis: Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka
A popular topic of conversation is the question of which of these two Jaegers is "better" (which for our purposes will be assumed to mean "which is better at fighting Kaiju?"). I've made my thoughts on the matter known before, but today I'd like to elaborate on this issue in more detail, in the hope of helping others to be better informed when deciding on their own opinions. Statlines Obviously, the first thing worth looking at is the hard numbers (Speed/Strength/Armor). Gipsy has 7/8/6, and Striker has 10/10/9. Advantage: Striker Eureka, by a wide margin At first glance, this is all the information one needs to see. However, the movie paints a much more complicated picture, where the difference between high and low stats isn't as significant as we might like, and other factors come into play. Let's consider a few examples to illustrate my point. Mutavore had a statline significantly worse than any of the other category IVs (and even worse than Onibaba, a category II). But category IV's are more dangerous than lower categories by definition. Crimson Typhoon's Armor of 6 (equal to Gipsy Danger's) didn't stop Otachi from destroying it in one blow (whereas Gipsy took quite a few good swings from her and kept kicking). And Cherno Alpha had more armor than any other Jaeger (Striker included), but that didn't protect it from Otachi when she bit right through its hand (or burned through its reactor with acid, or tore its arm off). Finally, Slattern's statline was universally superior to Striker Eureka's, but that didn't stop Striker from holding its ground (and then some) through the use of superior weaponry. In other words, equipment matters just as much as stats, and so we would be remiss in our analytical duties if we ignored them. Plasma Cannons vs Missiles Both are long range weapons, and both appear to be pretty good at their job of killing Kaiju. However, before going any further, there's one issue that needs to be resolved. The fact that Striker's missiles are described as being "anti-Kaiju" (plus the fact that they were used in a city) might mean that they chemically or thermically prevent the spread of Kaiju Blue. Under this interpretation, we would have to conclude that the missiles are inaccurate enough that 6 are required to kill Mutavore (who has Armor 7 if you believe his stats; and is probably still in the 7-8 range even if you don't believe them, simply because every other category 4 we see short of Leatherback is there). An alternative interpretation, however, is that the "anti-Kaiju" description of the missiles refers to an ability to kill Kaiju (instead of an ability to prevent the spread of Kaiju Blue), which would mean that they were fired inaccurately on purpose to kill the target with minimal Kaiju bloodshed (or "blueshed", as I will now call it) at the cost of requiring more missiles to do so (since they weren't being focused on one area). The missiles technically appear to have a slightly higher fire rate than Gipsy's plasma cannons, but the fire rates of both are not consistent (the gap between the first and second missile is longer than those between the middle missiles, and the last missile has a large delay before it; Gipsy's plasma cannons have similar inconsistencies). The most likely explanation is that, as the weapons are semiautomatic (firing one round at a time), the limiting factor on fire rate of both weapons are the pilots, which would prevent us from concluding that either weapon is quicker than the other. Based on what we see in the movie, it also appears that Striker Eureka needs to fire missiles one at a time (otherwise, there would have been little reason to not fire multiple missiles in multiple directions all at the same time). As for the plasma cannons, they were shown to require 3-4 shots to kill Knifehead, who had Armor 7 (Raleigh claims that they lit Knifehead up "twice", but three shots were seen; it's possible that he was mistaken or that one of the shots was simply shown more than once as a sort of "action replay"). Many more than that were used against Leatherback, but he had more armor and most of the shots were indirect or not targeted at quite the same place (Raleigh must not have been paying attention in the Jaeger Academy on the day they taught pilots to aim for the center of mass). In fact, it took only two shots to burn all the way through Leatherback's torso, which suggests that the plasma cannons became more powerful in the upgrade (and that Leatherback's vital organs were not in the line of fire, if indeed the extra shots were needed at all). The novelization suggests that each plasma cannon had a seperate reservoir (and this piece of information doesn't contradict anything seen in the film), which would mean that both cannons can theoretically fire at the same time. Both weapons have a short delay before they can be fired. By my observations, not counting the pilot's movements, Striker requires 3-4 seconds to prepare to fire its missiles (3 against Mutavore, 4 against Otachi). In Anchorage, Gipsy's plasma cannon took 9 seconds to warm up (I ignored the time it took after Gipsy received catastrophic damage for obvious reasons). According the novelization, the upgrade made the cannons warm up 15% more quickly, but my observations beg to differ. The first volley against Leatherback required 5 seconds to warm up, and the second (when they "checked for a pulse") took between 3 and 5 seconds, depending on whether one starts from the sound of the warm up itself or the sound of the hand changing. Given these margins of error, it would be difficult to conclude that one weapon deploys significantly more quickly than the other (especially with such a small sample size). However, I suspect Striker might have a very slight advantage in this area. Next comes ammunition considerations. Striker has 18 missiles. There is no reason to believe that one of Gipsy Danger's plasma cannons has more shots than the other, and I counted at least 11 shots going into Leatherback from the right cannon alone. So, if the plasma cannons are limited to the ammunition they start with, that would give the Gipsy Danger more plasma shots between its two cannons than Striker has missiles. More likely, however, is that Gipsy is capable of even more shots than that, because plasma is simply superheated gas, and the term "reservoir" implies something that collects and stores some other thing. In other words, it is more likely that in the long run, the number of shots that can be pumped out of a plasma cannon is limited only by the power its owner can generate. In this case, that would be a walking nuclear reactor with enough power to kill Slattern and then some (when a two thousand plus pound nuclear bomb inflicted primarily cosmetic damage), while still having enough power left to destroy the Breach via self-destruction. In other words, that's a lot of shots. Finally, we come to ease of deployment. In order for Gipsy Danger to fire a plasma cannon, it must give up the use of one of its arms. Striker Eureka, however, must spread both of its arms out and open its chest plate (making use of the weapon more risky, which is probably why it allowed for some distance from Mutavore before deploying). Regardless of which interpretation of Striker's missiles that we take, this seems to be one area where Gipsy has a clear advantage. Either their accuracy is terrible (making them weaker) or they are ineffective at preventing blueshed (leading to the same result), and either way they have less ammunition and a much worse deployment method (and this is all without considering the possibility of Gipsy firing both plasma cannons at once). Advantage: Gipsy Danger Sting Blades vs Chainswords Both blades are shown to be capable of penetrating Slattern's hide. Striker's blades are said to be heated so as to cauterize Kaiju anatomy. The three hundred degrees Fahrenheit figure that is given (and then only for the carbon nanotubes; the rest of it would presumably not be heated, bringing the overall temperature down even further) must be considered a mistake if we are to assume they are capable of cauterizing anything. Given that any solid material is going to be inherently cooler than plasma (or else it would be a plasma itself), it seems unlikely that the blades could cauterize wounds as well as plasma cannons (or whatever may or may not be in those missiles to accomplish the same goal). However, some cauterizing is still better than no cauterizing at all (the latter being what Gipsy Danger's chainswords offer on that front). The sting blades are also somewhat wider than Gipsy's chainswords. However, Gipsy Danger's chainswords have advantages of their own. To begin with, they are longer than Striker's sting blades. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that Gipsy Danger's swords aren't just swords, but also whips (making them effectively two weapons in one). Advantage: Debatable Elbow Rocket vs Brass Knuckles Striker Eureka has brass knuckles that supposedly increase its punching power. However, you might not notice that just from watching the movie. Mutavore didn't appear to be taking that much more damage from Striker's punches than Otachi did from Gipsy's. Striker's punches against Otachi appear impressive, but of the ones we see, only the second is useful to our analysis, because the first one (which beat Otachi down) was the result of momentum (we can see the same thing when Gipsy uses its rear thrusters against Leatherback) and the third one was the result of Striker suddenly hitting Otachi from an entirely unexpected direction, preventing the Kaiju from properly bracing against it. Striker's second punch against Otachi does appear to inflict more damage than Gipsy's punches, but not by very much. Given that Striker is a little bit stronger than Gipsy, this suggests that the effect of the brass knuckles is minor. On the other hand, Gipsy Danger has a rocket in its right elbow that is shown to vastly increase its punching power (regular punches stunned Leatherback; the Elbow Rocket punch sent him sprawling). However, it is a one-use weapon. It seems logical to assume that Gipsy has a second rocket in its left elbow, but it would be unfair to include things we speculate a Jaeger might have but cannot prove. Besides, there was ample opportunity to use it if it existed (and yet we never saw it), so we'll ignore it here. Advantage: Debatable Rear Thrusters The only Jaegers shown to have rear jets are Gipsy Danger and Crimson Typhoon. In the case of Gipsy Danger, at full power they were capable of instantly accelerating Gipsy to enough speed that it tackled the near seven thousand ton Slattern backward into the breach. The way that Gipsy uses them in that scene suggests that they are a form of turbo-boost (at least when used in that fashion, which is the functionality we are concerned with). Compare that to the slower acceleration seen from Striker Eureka (the fastest of all Jaegers) as it rushed to help Cherno Alpha. One might assume that it also has rear jets of its own, but if it did, that scene would have been the perfect time to use them. The fact that it did not therefore suggests it lacks them. Striker does have what appear to be vents on its back; but these could be for air intakes, heat venting, or any number of other things. It would be unfair to assume that Striker has rear jets simply because Gipsy does, because we do not see them in action (and therefore could not speculate on their effectiveness even if we could prove their existence). Furthermore, we assume that Gipsy lacks a second Elbow Rocket based on lack of evidence, and so the same burden of proof must apply to Striker. But even if Striker did have rear jets (and those jets had similar performance to Gipsy's), it seems intuitively obvious that rear jets would be more useful to whichever Jaeger was slower, because it would make the speed difference (at least temporarily) less significant. Finally, the fact that these jets give Gipsy the ability to (for a short time) move faster than Striker suggests that they are not included as a part of Gipsy's Speed stat (otherwise the Speed stat would stop making sense, just like adding the effect of the Brass Knuckles to Striker's Strength, or adding the effect of Raiju's Speed to his Strength). Having the stats be conditional like that doesn't really make sense. Advantage: Gipsy Danger S-11 Pulse Launcher I am of the opinion that this weapon doesn't even exist. Advantage: N/A Digital and Non-Nuclear vs Analog and Nuclear As we saw in the movie, analog is better. Furthermore, a nuclear power source means a larger energy well to draw from. Advantage: Gipsy Danger Coolant Venting Yes, I know it is an improvised weapon (and judging from the "coolant low" message displayed in the Conn-Pod after Gipsy Danger lands in the stadium, it's probably a one-use weapon at that). However, there is no denying its effectiveness. Advantage: Gipsy Danger Fuel Purge Again, improvised weapon. And again, very effective. Indeed, the vortex turbine proves to be the true ultimate weapon, as it kills Slattern when nothing else could (including Striker Eureka's blades and the nuclear bomb). Advantage: Gipsy Danger Conclusion Time So, how are we to make sense of all of this? It seems quite obvious that the Striker chassis is superior (and by a fair degree). However, Gipsy Danger clearly has the advantage when it comes to armament. It has more stuff to deploy, and sometimes they are better than the Striker equivalents. Ultimately, the decision of which one is better lies in one's individual interpretation of the significance of Gipsy Danger's advantages. How useful is being analog, really? Just how much better is that vortex turbine than everything else? Do the (admittedly) minor advantages that Gipsy Danger possesses outweigh the (also) minor advantages of Striker Eureka's higher statline? Or is a little more speed and brute force better than a few more tricks in the utility belt? The purpose of this analysis has been to give each and every one of you a solid body of knowledge from which to draw your own conclusions. In the end, this is an opinion we must each form for ourselves, and trying to tell others that their opinion of which traits are more important is pointless (not that it will stop anyone). For the record, though, I think it all evens out. Category:Blog posts